Decorating Bowling Pins – Star Wars Edition

So after making my Minion bowling pin, I decided to try my hand at making a Chewbacca pin. I had seen one other version online and when I came across fake fur boot toppers at the 100 yen store (dollar store to those not in Japan). I decided to go for it. I also decided to make one of my favorite characters Yoda and enter him into a Christmas Bowling Pin decorating contest, but I will get to his details after I talk about Chewie.

I started again by spraying both pins white with a matte white spray paint. This helps to not only smooth out blemishes and nicks on the pin, but also to act as a better bonding surface.

Then for Chewbacca I used 3 fur boot toppers and wrapped the pin. I used hot glue to secure the fake fur. I then used a brown leather belt I found at the 100 yen that had stitch work I thought looked similar to his sash and cut it to fit around the pin. I secured it with hot glue to the fur. Then I used button eyes and a smaller one for the nose and hit glued them on. The final tough was cutting out a felt mouth. I also secured it with hot glue. All in all it took me about 30 minutes or so once I got working on him to finish it. I was happy with my end result.

Now for my Yoda pin, this one was a little more involved. Using an already spray painted white pin, I painted the entire thing Yoda green. While that dried I also painted leather sections that I cut out to act as his ears. I painted both the front and backs of the leather and used clothes pins and a dab of hot glue to pull the leather together like an ear. It took a little while for it to dry and become secure. I then glued the ears into the bowling pin and painted over the gaps with more green paint.

While that dried I use some white and brown fleece scrap material I had and hand sewed his outfit and cape. I decided it would drape and not be firm fitting. To complete the outfit I used a bit of brown yarn to make a belt.

The next step was to make his face. I decided to try using a sharpie to draw the face on and it seemed to work pretty well, except for the fact that if you mess up with the sharpie there is no covering it. Trust me I tried. The sharpie just bless right through. I think if I try something like this where I need to draw on a face I will try to find paint pens or something.

But anywho, once Yodas face and wrinkly head were complete it was time to the final element for the contest. Since it was a Christmas themed contest I used a small Santa hat I found at the store and fitted it to work on his head. I did not secure the hat, because I wanted him to be able to be used for Halloween as well.

Yoda is one of my favorite characters, but my next bowling pin creation blog is easily one of my favorites. Come back next week to check it out.